All posts tagged corporate

Corporate debt is at record levels – at 57% of gross domestic product, it’s the sixth consecutive quarterly record and the highest level since 1955. But companies have also amassed a mountain of cash. To understand why, look to Congress, which writes the tax code, and also to the Federal Reserve, which has kept borrowing cheap. Here’s a look at how, together, they have given U.S. companies a powerful incentive to borrow and save simultaneously. Read More »

The European Union probe of tax deals between three governments and three global corporate giants, including Apple Inc., is the latest salvo in a broader European effort to wring more corporate tax revenue from multinational companies—particularly big U.S.-based tech firms.

Countries including the U.K., Germany and France have sought to crack down in recent years on big companies they allege don’t pay sufficient taxes. The crackdown comes amid economic malaise across much of Europe. Governments have sought new rules at the European level but have also pushed for global standards at forums like the Group of Seven.

And they have been sending tax cops in with the threat of massive bills. More on this after the jump… Read More »

Streamlining BHP Billiton PLC might sound like a good idea on paper. It could prove tricky in practice. The mining giant, with a market value of around $170 billion, earlier Tuesday confirmed it was looking at ways to simplify its enormous portfolio of assets, to focus on four key commodities – copper, coal, iron ore and petroleum – with potash a potential fifth ‘pillar’. Read More »

Since the crisis hit in 2007, American companies have cut back on investing in their businesses, dropping spending on new factories, equipment and systems in favor of building up record-high piles of cash.

By some estimates, U.S. companies under-invested by $175 billion between 2009 and 2011 – and that money was sorely missed in the wider economy. After a plunge during the recession, corporate investment started growing again in 2010, helping drive the fragile economic recovery in the process.

It took another dive in 2012, thanks to worries about the fiscal cliff, slowing demand overseas and uncertainty heading into the presidential election.

But the stars may finally be in alignment in 2014: Companies look set to boost investment again. More on this after the jump… Read More »

Today in the WSJ, a look back at an underrated golden era in the history of musical theatre:

“Go Fly a Kite” was an “industrial musical,” a genre created when American industry was booming and businesses wanted fully staged live shows for corporate meetings or events. Many shows were Broadway-quality, with full sets, costumes, orchestras and plots, but they were written as infotainment that could span a day, with speeches in-between, or be performed in a meeting session. “Go Fly a Kite” ran at the Fifth Electric Utility Executives Conference in Williamsburg, Va., with songs including “PDM (Power Distribution Management) Can Do.”

Another reason 1966 was a beautiful time to be alive.

The corporate shows often involved the best Broadway talent, and really were ”first-class musical theater, when you remove the fact that they are talking about, say, cleaning products” according to Sport Murphy, the co-author of ”Everything’s Coming Up Profits,” the book documenting the history of the industrial musical, which the WSJ’s Pia Catton reviews today.

It’s just your standard-issue released by a government press service, showing political leaders doing a grab-and-grin with their assembled guests, right?

This time the setting is Beijing’s Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, and the leaders include Chinese president Xi Jinping (front, left) and Vice Premier Liu Yandong (front, right):

Reuters

But there’s a whole lot more going on in this picture than you might think. Assembled in this Chinese state reception are some of the heaviest hitters in the world economy — a kind of corporate dream team that most leaders would be lucky to meet one at a time, let alone all together in a single sitting.

The WSJ has marked up the photo and identified some of the best known faces in the crowd, including the chiefs of Coca Cola, Wal-Mart, Blackstone and the Carlyle Group. See our edit of the photo, after the jump… Read More »

As the WSJ reports today, a Senate investigation found Apple “used technicalities in Irish and American tax law to pay little or no corporate taxes on at least $74 billion over the past four years”.

Apple insisted in its written submission to the Senate(PDF) that it pays all the tax required of it in every jurisdiction it operates in — including an “extraordinary” amount of corporate income tax at home in America. In fact, the company says its corporate taxes “account for $1 in every $40 in corporate income tax the US”

But some Senate members were far from satisfied with that claim. They had the chance to ask Apple boss Tim Cook all about his company’s approach to tax, as he appeared before a hearing of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. We live blogged the appearance.

Cars, washing machines and stoves are all flying off the shelves and floors thanks to pent-up, post-recession demand in the U.S., but one thing that’s not shifting is the humble corporate jet. Cessna parent Textron Inc. acknowledged that the long-forecast rebound just isn’t happening, forecasting that its deliveries this year will fall short of 2012.

Cessna is more exposed than rivals to smaller, lighter planes, a segment that’s been weak as manufacturers worked through a bloated inventory of jets traded in by cash-strapped companies and millionaires, only to discount their way into trouble.

“We have to be open about the fact that the light market has not recovered at this point, contrary to our expectations, and so we’re going to scale back some of the production… because I think the demand just isn’t there,” Textron CEO Scott Donnelly told analysts Wednesday.

Mr. Donnelly signaled that Cessna’s going to pull back on the discounts, though the good news for prospective buyers is that you can order and receive a new jet in the same quarter.

But the survey of 3,100 executives in 25 countries did show the kind of conflicting policy ambitions you’re likely to hear from corporate leaders: people want radically better education systems but tightened government spending, investment for the future but typically not investment of their own giant cash reserves, more done to promote local business and more done to make cross-border trade easier. Read More »